A memo that appears to prove that aliens in flying saucers did land in New Mexico prior to 1950 has been published by the FBI.
The bureau has made thousands of files available in a new online resource called The Vault.
Among them is a memo to the director from Guy Hottel, the special agent in charge of the Washington field office in 1950.
Proof of (alien) life? A copy of the 1950 memo that recounts the discovery of flying saucers and aliens in New Mexico. The memo has been published on the FBI website
In the memo, whose subject line is 'Flying Saucers', Agent Hottel reveals that an Air Force investigator had stated that 'three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico'.
The investigator gave the information to a special agent, he said. The FBI has censored both the agent and the investigator's identity.
Agent Hottel went on to write: 'They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter.
'Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall,' he stated.
The bodies were 'dressed in a metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots.'
Was it true? An image allegedly showing one of the aliens that were autopsied at Roswell in 1947
He said that the informant, whose identity was censored in the memo, claimed the saucers had been found in New Mexico 'due to the fact that the Government has a very high-powered radar set-up in that area and it is believed the radar interferes with teh controlling mechanism of the saucers'.
He then stated that the special agent did not attempt to investigate further.
The release of the secret memo is likely to fuel conspiracy theorists' claims of a government cover-up.
The town of Roswell in New Mexico became infamous after reports that a flying saucer had crashed there in 1947.
Roswell: Secret memo released online is written to the FBI Director and could confirm the 1947 Roswell UFO incident
Flying saucers: One of the supposed alien victims of the Roswell UFO crash
The bodies of aliens were said to have been recovered and autopsied by the U.S. military, but American authorities allegedly covered the incident up.
Another memo published in The Vault from 1947 claimed that an object 'purporting to be a flying disc' had been recovered near Roswell.
The disc was 'hexagonal in shape' and 'suspended from a balloon by a cable', according to the memo, marked as 'Urgent', to the FBI director.
The memo noted that the disc resembled a weather balloon - but claimed that a telephone conversation between the Air Force and the field office 'had not [word censored] borne out this belief'.
Autopsy: A dead alien is allegedly examined following the landing at Roswell
The disc and balloon were being transported to Wright Field for further inspection, the memo noted.
It added that the information was being flagged up because of 'national interest' in the episode, and noting that both NBC and the AP were set to break the story that day.